Wicked Dove

Institute Thirteen, Book 1

By: KC Kean

Narrated by: Heather Stonewell, Ryan West

I killed someone.

Not on purpose, but not exactly by accident. Regardless, those three little words have changed the course of my life as I know it.

Suddenly, I'm thrust into a supernatural world I never knew existed to become sworn property of The Sanctum—a magical council ruling over all magical beings.

My punishment? Confinement within the crumbling fortress of Institute 13, built for monsters like me. Shadow fae, feral wolves, and bloodthirsty vampires… this prison houses the darkest of their kind, and somehow I am one of them.

I don't know what I am, only that something snapped inside of me that night… and there is no gluing it back together.

The Outcasts may seem like they're thriving, but I refuse to become their prey. Freedom is the only thing I care about now. And nothing—not fear, not love, not the past—will stop me.

©2026 KC Kean (P)2026 Podium Audio

I think it's a good book but I hope it gets better

I feel like the story has a lot of potential but the FMC was written incredibly whiny and kind of weak. She's strong in a lot of ways but I really enjoy books where the FMC is physically stronger with some ability to defend themselves but there's plenty of room left in the next few bonds for her to grow so I'm hoping it gets better. otherwise the other characters were every bit as good as I had hoped when starting this series.

The perfect combo of longing and chaos !

Unique “academy” setting, a strong-willed FMC, and three broody men who she can’t decide whether to kiss or throat punch lol. Highly enjoyable!

The enunciation…

3.75 overall. I could not stand the way the female voice actress enunciated her words in an unnecessary fashion. The mans’ name is Walker yet she enunciates the “walk” like she forcing the word down our throat and the “er” is an afterthought. Just say walker like a normal person, not someone trying to sound overly sexy which then made it annoying and not sexy. Although when she does the “male character voices”, she talks just fine or when she’s not speaking the FMC’s internal dialogue, she speaks normally. This style of enunciation throughout the entire book kind of grated on me and it wasn’t just with the name “Walk-er”, hence the lower score for performance. The male voice actor, however, was great. I like the series enough to continue it, but I’ll be reading instead of listening to the rest of the series.